My brothers and I, accompanied by my friend Jon — a fellow basement ping ponger — ventured to the great lands of McCormick Place for the 2007 Killerspin Spinvitational. While its name may suggest a Bloodsport style underground multi-disciplined martial arts competition, it’s actually a big (free!) ping pong table tennis tournament.

Jon and I arrived just in time to see an 11-year-old Serbian table tennis prodigy in an exhibition match.

The second match was between some British dude and Biba, the Anna Kournikova of table tennis. Mr. British Man really wanted to be the center of attention, but the crowd was clearly more interested in Biba, especially the fellow in front of us who kept shouting throughout the entire match. Most of what he said was in some Eastern European language I didn’t understand, but often he’d just yell, “Biba! You So Beautiful!”